A new pool club and camp resort is bringing an intoxicating wave of energy to the Russian River Valley this summer.
I can feel it pulsing in the obscure early-’90s pop tunes on the stereo system, in the parakeet-green loungers under circus-striped umbrellas, in the redwoods that shiver in the warm West Sonoma wind. There’s a reason they call it The River Electric.
A little over a month old, the property is in peak form. There are two pools—a 60-foot family-friendly circular pool and a smaller rectangular one just for adults. On the lawn, the soft, grassy kind that begs you to go barefoot, cabanas are spread at respectable distances, each with two daybeds and a dedicated server for your food and beverage needs. The patio houses the Pool Bar, a breezy, mid-century-modern-meets-boho space with communal wooden tables and corner lounges.
The Pool Bar(Bess Friday)
On a Tuesday at noon, the place is jumping with families taking advantage of “local’s day,” a weekly event where anyone living in a handful of nearby ZIP codes can play for the day for just $5 a pop. Making sure Russian River residents felt welcome at The River Electric was one of the priorities of its owners, the West Sonoma-based team behind the itinerant event company Shelter Co.
For those coming from farther afield, there’s the resort’s “camp hotel,” a riverside corridor outfitted with a few dozen canvas glamping tents, each with either king-sized beds or two doubles made with luxury bedding, lounge furnishings, electricity, and outdoor seating. A bathhouse located between the main pool and the tent neighborhood has a minimalist design with private outdoor showers, single-stall restrooms, and a dedicated area for primping and preening with bulbous mirror lighting and striped curtains that deliver a carnival-like touch.
At the Pool Bar, I meet Maggie Wilson and Kelsey Sheofsky, two of the four-friend-strong leadership team and the effortlessly cool duo responsible for The Get Out, a styley outdoor brand for camp and picnic gear (some of which are available in the reception area/shop on-site). The opening of this laid-back day-to-night resort was a long time coming, they tell me.
A tent with a king-sized bed(Bess Friday)
The site was bought back in 2018—when it was still a defunct amusement park—with the intention of developing it into a more permanent version of Shelter Co.’s pop-up events. It ended up taking seven years to build—and not just because Covid messed up the world.
Located on what was once a 100-year floodplain, today the land can end up completely submerged at least twice a year (as it was this past winter). That means that not only can the property welcome guests for just a part of the year, from April to October, everything on it had to be made either ultra flood-proof or removable. The eco-resilient features took time to sort out and, although the architectural plan they ended up with is nothing like the one they originally devised, it’s about as sustainable as they come: a place that’s likely to stand the test of a changing climate.
The resort’s precarious ecological situation also made it impossible for the team to build an on-site kitchen. Instead, they built a “kitchen on wheels” inside a 26-foot trailer that lives on the property in the summer and will be moved off-site in the fall. It's from there that The River Electric produces all the food for the Pool Bar: healthy snacks like seasonal veggie crudités with green goddess dressing and not-so-healthy snacks like “River Rat” fries loaded with pimento cheese, electric sauce, crème fraîche, and a potato chip crumble; salads and bowls like a niçoise with salmon confit and a soft -boiled egg; and sandos like the high-low hot dog (a wiener with or without caviar fixin’s) and the sleeper hit vegan gyro.
Snacks of all sorts can be ordered from the Pool Bar.(Bess Friday)
Conveniently, cocktails are made right at the bar, drinks like the Green Mary (a spicy Bloody made with celery juice instead of tomato), a classic margarita, and the non-alcoholic On The Fence made with blackberry, lime, and ginger beer. They’ve also got several wine options and beer both on draft and in cans, as well as their own River Electric canned white courtesy of local natural wine stars Ruth Lewandowski (who, incidentally, will be opening a tasting room in nearby Forestville on August 1st). It’s unclear whether the root beer float—made with a shot of bourbon when desired—falls to the chefs in the kitchen or the mixologists behind the bar.
For events, The River Electric can dial things up to 11 in several different ways. There’s a huge tent on the grassy knoll overlooking the pool area, and the adult pool can be rented out privately. Down in the redwoods, on one side of the tent village, there’s a sort of natural chapel with a boardwalk aisle and wooden pews. On the other, there’s a broad patio dining area. That’s where I see Wilson and Sheofsky again that evening at a 20-person table decked out with rustic beauty and a whole lot of wine.
For dinners here, they bring in local chefs without brick-and-mortar spaces, like Lee Derosiers, who is cooking up his New York-famous “Hell Chicken"—along with half a dozen other seasonally inspired dishes—over an open flame. Pop-up dinners that are open to the public are one of the (many) schemes the team is considering implementing in the months to come. Perhaps my favorite idea, though, is already in position: an old-school phone booth erected on one side of the deck and injected with fun surprises.
The 60-ft diameter Main Pool(Bess Friday)
After a final tipple around the communal firepit up on the lawn, it’s off to bed. Snuggled down in the cozy mattress, blankets heaped against the cool night air, I drift off to sleep and don’t wake again until morning, when the choir of songbirds outside begins its daily performance.
The River Electric is aware that sleeping in a tent—even a fancy one with a bed—isn’t for everyone. Those that prefer their bathroom en suite can get day passes that last from 11am to 8pm for a little more than $35/person (add a chaise lounge for an extra $20); it’s less than a five-minute walk to the luxe Stavrand and just a few minutes farther across the footbridge to downtown Guerneville’s other stays, restaurants, shops, and bars.
But whatever current you’re operating on, The River Electric is the place to be this summer. They’ll keep it plugged in, turned on, and vibrating with life in Guerneville all season long.
// 16101 Neeley Rd. (Guerneville), theriverelectric.com
The River Electric's minimalist bathhouse(Bess Friday)
